PROPHET ISAIAH
Verse 15. The Lord-shall smite it in the seven streams “Smite with a
Verse 7. In this verse a word is omitted in the text, wdjy yachdav, toyether; which ought to be repeated in the second hemistich, being quite necessary to the sense. It is accordingly twice expressed by the Septuagint and Syriac.
Verse 8. The cockatrice’ den.— This is supposed, both by the Targum and by Kimchi, to mean the pupil of this serpent’s eye. “When,” says Kimchi, “he is in the mouth of his den, in an obscure place, then his eyes sparkle exceedingly: the child, seeing this, and supposing it to be a piece of crystal, or precious stone, puts forth his hand to take it. What would be very dangerous at another time, shall be safe in the days of the Messiah; for the serpent will not hurt the child.”
Verse 10. A root of Jesse, which shall stand etc. “The root of Jesse, which standeth,” etc.— St. John hath taken this expression from Isaiah,
<660505>Revelation 5:5, and 22:16, where Christ hath twice applied it to himself.
Seven MSS. have dmw[ omed, standing, the present participle. Radix Isaei dicitur jam stare, et aliquantum stetisse, in signum populorum. —
VITRINGA. “The root of Jesse is said to stand, and for some time to have stood, for an ensign to the people.” Which rightly explains either of the two readings. The one hundred and tenth psalm is a good comment on this verse. See the notes there.
Verse 11. And it shall come to pass in that day— This part of the chapter
drought”— The Chaldee reads byrjh hecherib; and so perhaps the Septuagint, who have erhmwsei, the word by which they commonly render it. Vulg. desolabit; “shall desolate.” The Septuagint, Vulgate, and Chaldee read whkyrdh hidrichahu, “shall make it passable,” adding the pronoun, which is necessary: but this reading is not confirmed by any MS.
Here is a plain allusion to the passage of the Red Sea. And the Lord’s shaking his hand over the river with his vehement wind, refers to a particular circumstance of the same miracle: for “he caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land,”
<021421>Exodus 14:21. The tongue; a very apposite and descriptive expression
for a bay such as that of the Red Sea. It is used in the same sense,
<061502>
Joshua 15:2, 5; 18:19. The Latins gave the same name to a narrow strip of land running into the sea: tenuem producit in aequora linguam. LUCAN. 2:613. He shall smite the river to its seven streams. This has been supposed to refer to the Nile, because it falls into the Mediterranean Sea by seven mouths: but R. Kimchi understands it of the Euphrates, which is the opinion of some good judges. See the Targum. See below.
Herodotus, lib. i, 189, tells a story of his Cyrus, (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon,) which may
somewhat illustrate this passage, in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable by dividing it into seven streams. “Cyrus, being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris, and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be up to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work, and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches, from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off.”
CHAPTER 12
Prophetic hymn of praise for the great mercies vouchsafed to the children of Israel in their deliverance from the great Babylonish captivity, and for redemption by the Messiah, 1-6.
This hymn seems, by its whole tenor, and by many expressions in it, much better calculated for the use of the Christian Church than for the Jewish, in any circumstances, or at any time that can be assigned. The Jews
themselves seem to have applied it to the times of Messiah. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles they fetched water in a golden pitcher from the fountain of Shiloah, springing at the foot of Mount Sion without the city:
they brought it through the water-gate into the temple, and poured it, mixed with wine, on the sacrifice as it lay upon the altar, with great
rejoicing. They seem to have taken up this custom, for it is not ordained in the law of Moses, as an emblem of future blessings, in allusion to this passage of Isaiah, “Ye shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of salvation,” expressions that can hardly be understood of any benefits afforded by the Mosaic dispensation. Our Savior applied the ceremony, and the intention of it, to himself, and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, promised, and to be given, by him. The sense of the Jews in this matter is plainly shown by the following passage of the Jerusalem Talmud: “Why is it called the place or house of drawing?” (for that was the term for this ceremony, or for the place where the water was taken up) “Because from thence they draw the Holy Spirit; as it is written, And ye shall draw water with joy from the fountains of salvation.” See Wolf. Curae Philol. in N.T. on
<430737>John 7:37, 39. — L. The water is Divine knowledge, says Kimchi, and
the wells the teachers of righteousness. The Targum renders this in a very remarkable manner: “Ye shall receive with joy (tdj plwa ulephan chadath) a new doctrine from the chosen among the righteous.” Does not this mean the Gospel, the new covenant? And did not the Targumist speak as a prophet?
NOTES ON CHAP. 12